"We thought, he's just run off somewhere, which is a natural thing and hopeful thing to do.

"There's a track up through the bush. I walk up to there nearly every day."

The small dirt track off Benaroon Drive winds through the bush for several hundred metres before it reaches a cemetery.

Track through the forest near Benaroon Drive, Kendall.

Soon, sleepy Benaroon Drive was chaotically alive with people.

William's foster father had returned, crushing the foster mother's faint hope that William might have run off down the road and caught up with him.

"There was a bit of confusion if William was with me, because he's always looking out for me and my car," the foster father said later.

"I was on my way back, and I'd arrived back and been asked if William was with me and I said 'no' then I immediately got out of the car and started looking round.

"Within five minutes we raised the alarm and I think I ran the perimeter of the street within about 10 to 15 minutes and I mean, he wouldn't, he's not a wanderer.

"He wouldn't even cross the street by himself. He wouldn't go far."
Further down Benaroon Drive, the man who had been mowing his lawn said he was unaware of what was happening until, "I was on my ride-on mower and saw a police car".

"I've been here the whole time, people have been pouring through our backyards. I really hope he's found soon."

Police in the garden of the house where William Tyrrell went missing in Kendall. Picture: David Moir

The neighbour said he had met William's father who was "searching through the backyards heartbroken and frantic".

Just before 11am, the foster mother dialled triple-0.

Police arrived and called in the dog squad, followed by State Emergency Service volunteers.

By 1pm, a police helicopter was in the sky and with phones ringing hot around Kendall, soon scores of residents from surrounding areas had converged on Benaroon Drive to join in the search.

NSW Police began doorknocking houses in the Benaroon estate.

Judy Wilson returned from her errands in town to find the street in turmoil.

"The only thing I was able to tell police was that I heard the children playing but didn't see them," Mrs Wilson told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I just heard kids laughing and you could tell they were little children.

Community volunteers including Heather Miller (above) prepared food for the search teams at Kendall showground. Picture: David Moir

"I don't think it was an opportunistic grab from someone who just happened to be here ­because we don't get strangers wandering around."

At 48 Benaroon Drive, police sniffer dogs picked up William's scent, but only within the boundaries of the property.

Police searched each of the 21 houses in the estate, climbing into roof spaces, sub-floor spaces and wall cavities, and combing through cupboards, sheds and backyards.

Bushland surrounding the grandmother's home was scoured, with no sign of William.

A little three-year-old in a Spider-Man suit could not have gotten far on his own, and police would swiftly conclude that William had been abducted.

After contacting NSW Family and Community Services to learn the details of William's birth family, police knocked on a door in Sydney.

It was the home of 25-year-old Karlie Tyrrell and her partner, Brendan Collins.

William Tyrrell's biological parents were interviewed, but police dismissed the pair as possible suspects in William's abduction.

Police knocked on the door of Karlie Tyrrell and Brendan Collins (above) but dismissed them as suspects.

In Kendall, a shop owner would remember that a man had asked for directions to Batar Creek Road, which runs between the township and the spot from where William had vanished.

At Kendall Cellars, shop owner Rheannon Chapman was told not to delete anything from her CCTV.

As night fell on Benaroon Drive, no peace came with it.

Judy Wilson would later describe how William's foster father frantically searched her yard, over and over again, into the night.

"He was just walking around crying. He kept asking me if there was anywhere else (William) could've been hiding here," Mrs Wilson said.

"He just looked devastated."

In the ensuing days, hundreds of tips and possible sightings poured in.

Search crews swelled to more than 200 police officers, SES volunteers and residents scouring properties and kilometres of bush.

Police divers arrived to search creeks and rivers.

The house on Benaroon Drive in Kendall, NSW where the mystery of three-year-old William Tyrrell began in 2014. Picture: David Moir

On September 16, 2014, four days after William's disappearance, volunteers came across a patch of blood near a creek just over 2km from Benaroon Drive.

Police brought in a forensics truck, but tests revealed the blood was not human.

On a bush track, a knife sheath and a set of small footprints were found, but police discounted them as a lead.

Lines of police and SES crews walked up and down hills.

They conducted "a more evidence-based search" of the Middle Brother National Park, 10km from the abduction site, looking for items like clothes possibly discarded from a vehicle.

Meanwhile the town of Kendall, with volunteers from up and down the mid-north Coast, swung into action, providing food for searchers and an online support network for William's cause.

Judy Wilson's husband, Richard, would later describe the Benaroon estate as "just a normal neighbourhood … we have had a couple of Christmas parties on the next door neighbour's block and everyone is invited.

"But you don't spend your life looking at what other people are doing," he told the Newcastle Herald in late 2014.

In August 2017, almost three years since William had vanished, it was revealed the NSW Supreme Court had ruled statutory restrictions on identifying William's "out of home" care status could be lifted.

The NSW Department of Family and Community Services had opposed an application to lift the restrictions, but Justice Paul Brereton found the matter was of "legitimate public interest".

Justice Brereton also noted "the tragic probability that (William) is no longer alive".

In June this year, Inspector Jubelin led a two-week search of Kendall and surrounding areas as a forerunner to William's case being examined by the NSW Coroner.

More than 15,000 pieces of information and lines of inquiry had been collected since William disappeared.

Inspector Jubelin said his intention was "to prove that beyond reasonable doubt, William's disappearance was the result of human intervention and not misadventure".

During the search, Benaroon Drive resident and veterinarian Cheranne Garcia told Port News she wanted to block negative messages about her street.

"Our kids aren't living in constant fear," she said.

Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin (above on Benaroon Drive) has prepared a brief of evidence for the NSW Coroner’s inquest into William Tyrrell. Picture: Lindsay Moller

Her three children played in the bush and "never had any reason to be worried or concerned". "My youngest still rides his bike into town," she said.

Neighbour Paul Savage agreed, though he said Benaroon Drive has changed since William's disappearance put the street on the national map.

The foster grandmother sold her house in 2016, but other residents of the once anonymous address have also sold up and moved, Mr Savage told news.com.au.

"We've lost different families," he said, "(but) it still is a safe area.

"We spent a good week or two searching; it was a real community effort.

"The police were excellent in everything they did and they kept it up and kept popping back.

"(But) somebody somehow managed to get him and disappeared down the road.

"I don't know how it happened of course. He's been taken to a place unknown.